Make a Boot Disc for 2k or XP

This is a description of building and using a boot disc in Microsoft windows 2k and XP.

Hopefully you will never need a boot disc.

If you are having problems booting, your first option is to hit F8 before windows starts loading up. This will often give the user enough options to bypass the offending problem.

If not or if you system won’t load at all, a boot disc will help your system start by skipping the typical boot system files.

1. Format at standard floppy. Do not select the create a MS-DOS start-up disc
2. Copy the following files to the disc. They are hidden in your root directory on your main drive (typically “c:”).
– boot.ini
– ntdetect.com
– ntldr
3. Reboot your system with the floppy in your A drive.
4. Make sure your bios is set to have your A drive boot before your C drive.
5. This should boot up into Windows and bypass your typical start-up boot files.

The greatest majority of the time this works. If it does not, then look for the following files in your system and copy them to your boot disc as well.

– Bootsect.dos
– Ntbootdd.sys

If you are having problems finding the files or building the disc, check out the comments below for more hints.

David Kirk is one of the original founders of tech-recipes and is currently serving as editor-in-chief. Not only has he been crafting tutorials for over ten years, but in his other life he also enjoys taking care of critically ill patients as an ICU physician.View more articles by David Kirk